In the prior art, to further accommodate performance requirements of a wireless communication network, base stations having different transmit power or using different access types are deployed in the same geographic region to form heterogeneous multi-layer coverage. For example, in a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, hereafter abbreviated as LTE) system, a heterogeneous network formed by a micro base station and a low-power base station (or referred to as a low-power node) may be used to enhance coverage of hotspots, coverage in blind spots, or coverage in weak signal spots within coverage of the macro base station, and coverage of edges of a cell of the macro base station, and meanwhile improve average throughput, edge throughput, and uplink/downlink spectrum utilization of a cell, and reduce the network construction cost and capital expenditure (Capital Expenditure, hereafter abbreviated as CAPEX) of an operator.
In an existing network, the case that a user is handed over to a cell and quickly handed over back to the original cell at the border of a macro cell exists. Such frequent handovers cause poor user experience. However, when a large number of low-power nodes are deployed within the coverage of a macro base station to obtain gains, a large number of cells are introduced. This causes a large number of cell borders. In addition, the low-power nodes have a small coverage radius, and once a user equipment moves across a border of a cell, a handover, cell selection, or cell reselection may occur so that the problem of quick handovers becomes more serious. In addition, a low-power node may function as an independent base station. This means that the handover between low-power nodes or between a low-power node and another node is a handover between base stations. However, the handover between base stations is more complicated than a handover within a base station, and involves a large amount of signaling and a plurality of network elements.
During implementation of the present invention, the inventor finds that in the prior art, the introduction of low-power nodes causes a number of “pico cells”, equivalent to causing more mobility borders, and therefore causing more handovers and cell reselections. This brings a huge load to the network, and also causes more frequent service interruptions, resulting in poor user experience. In another aspect, the low-power nodes are generally deployed in hotspots, for offloading traffic, and providing better user experience for users. However, the network cannot determine which cells are frequently accessed by mobile terminals, for example, a cell covering offices, and therefore fails to effectively hand over the mobile terminals thereto.